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At the Libraries: Sex at the Library

In my library, we just get "soloists," but apparently it is the fantasy of many to have sex in the library, if the "Best of Craigslist: Library Sex" is to be believed.
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Speaking of provocative, Happy Banned Books Week! Here's an opinion piece meant to provoke, just in the nick of time. It's about when libraries should ban books! After all, according to the author, "unless you are willing to sacrifice your child at the altar of political correctness, it may be wise to question the age-appropriateness of some books." I can see her point, and yet, and yet...
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So much going on this week, and not just about banned books. October 1st is also an important day, Twitter users. It's Follow a Library Day! My library doesn't tweet, but there are lots of great ones that do—maybe even yours? Check out the details here and here.
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Should libraries be "outsourced" to private companies? The debate is raging in Santa Clarita, CA, where the city council has voted to hand over control to Library Systems & Services, which also operates "public" libraries in four other states. According to an executive at LSSI, "A lot of libraries are atrocious... Their policies are all about job security. That's why the profession is nervous about us. You can go to a library for 35 years and never have to do anything and then have your retirement." Ouch.

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How about some good news, instead of the bad we've been hearing lately? Palm Beach, FL is building new libraries! That's great! But, uh oh, grey lining in those fluffy white clouds: Can the community afford it? And should they even bother, with the rise in (take a guess!) e-readers?
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Another bright spot: a library PSA made by New Jersey high school students!

*And some more good news, community-action style, from Chicago — parents are staging a sit-in at an abandoned school, demanding that it be turned into a public library. Power to the people!
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Uh oh — a war is brewing between Netflix and academic libraries using it to supplement their collections. Netflix "frowns upon" this action, but so far have said they won't be suing. Phew!
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Have you been wondering about metafiction, and its use in children's literature? Me, too! Well, we shall wonder no more, thanks to this handy video explaining its wide usage. There are some great books highlighted that I encourage you all to check out. I love to wow the storytime crowd with Ann Jonas' Round Trip and its metadrawings.

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I was emailing someone new and noticed that her email address had nothing to do with her name. Instead, it was a book character's name! That got me thinking about which book characters I might love enough to do the same. When I was younger, it would totally have been Claudia Kishi, but now? Maybe Isabel Dalhousie. Do you have a literary crush on a character?

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Also on Mental Floss:

DID YOU KNOW? Marlon Brando hated memorizing lines so much that he posted cue cards everywhere to help him get through scenes.
He even asked for lines to be written on an actress's posterior. (That request was denied.)